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A wide choice of topics covered from the dawn of history right up to present days . Many of these have a wider relevance than purely within the context of Strathearn . The author's viewpoint often is at variance with the accepted opinions espoused elsewhere eg The Jacobite Uprisings and The Reformation .

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Crieff in the Victorian Eraby " Dixon "Printed by HK Brown, 15 King Street 1897CRIEFF
LIFE IN SEPTEMBER 1896An
Original Account To know and understand Crieff as it exists in the yearof the DiamondJubilee ofHer Majesty Queen Victoria ,it is necessaryin the first placeto have someyears’ experiencein the town ,
and in the second placeto have some
sense ofobservation . There arecasts, sets , cliques , andcircles , sufficient to makeIndia hide its facein very shame; and there are more public
houses, doctors , lawyers , ministers ,
billiard rooms and churches than in almostanytown of the same
populationin either Scotland, Englandor Ireland. If you are in one set , you are notin the other , and if you are in the
other, your principal duty is to stickto it . You know the setsby their unfailing attachment ; you know the
circlesby their consequential airs ;
you distinguishthe castsby the way they carry their heads ; and you
can easilydiscover the cliquesby their unflagging attention…

Introduction My last two Blogs have looked at the 1745 Jacobite Rising with
a particular relevance to Crieff and Strathearn. The aftermath saw a vicious
retribution against the Gàidhealtachd- the
Gaelic speaking areas of Scotland and those lands on the periphery. Apart from the mass
killing of prisoners – many of the Jacobite persuasion were transported to the “colonies
“and their homes were burned to the ground. Contraryto whathasbeenwritten about Strathearn andthe
general attitudetowards the “ rebels “
by , in mostcases, Presbyterian clerics ,
it isclear that therewasconsiderable support in this areafor the Rising . The list of Jacobite prisoners has been published and
part was included in my previous Blog . Crieff and Strathearn worthies like the
local doctor and the postmaster were
some of the oneswho took up arms as well as a host of
weavers , farmers and farm workers . Most of the local lairdswere Jacobitesympathisers and as a consequence
theirlands were forfei…

The
Aftermath of Culloden, April 1746 Written by Robert Forbes who witnessed the Battle

" But the most shocking part of the story is yet to come, - I
mean the horrid barbarities committed in cold blood, after the battle was over.
I do not know precisely how many daysthe dead bodies lay upon the field to glut the eyes of the merciless
conqueror ; but certain it is , that there they lay, till the stench obliged
him to cause to bury them. In the meantime the soldiers , like so many savages
, went up and down, knocking such on the head as hadany remains of lifein them , and ,except in a few instances ,
refusing all manner of relief to the wounded , many of whom, had they been
properly taken care of , would have undoubtedly recovered .A little house into
which agood many of the wounded
hadbeen carried , was set on fire about
their ears ,and every soul in it burnt alive , of which numberwas Colonel Orelli, a brave old gentleman,
who was either in the French or Spanish …

Culloden Crieff figures in the Uprising of 1745 .On the 18th
August that year, Prince Charlie raised the Jacobite standard at Glenfinnan.
That very day, Sir John Cope, Commander – in – Chief of the Hanoverian army in Scotland,
left Edinburgh to attack the so called rebels in the Highlands, and to dispatch
Charlie back to France from whence he came. Cope’s army consisted of about
fourteen hundred men, with two Regiments of Dragoons.. The latter, however, he
left behind as unserviceable in the mountainous regions in what we Scots call
the Highlands. He carriedwith him a
large quantity of baggage , a drove of black cattle for food , and about a
thousand stands of arms for the “ volunteers “ whomhe expectedto joinhim on the way . He
marched by Stirling and Dunblane to Crieff and in Crieff remained for several
days .He pitched his camp to the east of the town on what is now Crieff Golf Course or the grounds of Ferntower. Here there was a very fine well which
supplied his troops w…

Retired part time lecturer at Perth College and former rugby correspondent to our local paper the Strathearn Herald .Former President and a Honorary Member of Crieff & Strathearn Rugby Club. Written 4 books on the local history of Strathearn .